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In honor of Children’s Cancer Month, Ball4Good is partnering with Dorman High School, Spartanburg Day School and Spartan High to raise funds for families living with cancer. Soccer players will participate in a fun game at Dorman on Sunday September 29th from 4pm to 5pm. Don’t miss this great afternoon.

Adom Appiah, founder of Ball4Good, has written a third book to motivate children. In the Spring of 2019, Adom was named the South Carolina High School State Honoree for the prestigious Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.

As part of the Spirit of Community Awards celebrations, Adom visited Washington, DC elementary schools with 101 student State Honorees from across the United States. During the school visits, he was given the opportunity to read his book – Kids Can Change the World to first graders. The questions posed by these younger readers during the DC and prior school visits, motivated Adom to write a simpler version of the book for children from Pre-K through second grade.

Ball4Good honored 4 organizations at it’s year-end meeting at the Spartanburg County Foundation on Wednesday, June 5, 2019.

The organizations received grants to help with the following:

Project Hope Foundation – $16,000 to fund a digital printing business

Sidewalk Hope – $2,200 to fund summer sports camps

Citizen Scholars – $2,200 to purchase robotics kits for Spartanburg County students

Brothers Restoring Urban Hope – $2,200 to help restore the urban community

The funds were made possible partly through ticket sales at the 2019 Celebrity Basketball Games held at Spartanburg Day School. Additional funds were raised through sponsorship from local businesses, several grants, and support from individuals. Southeastern Paper Group was the presenting sponsor of the 2019 Celebrity Basketball Games.

Several athletes including Antony Ianni formerly of Michigan State, Ricaye Harris of Milliken and Jerome Logan formerly of South Carolina State participated in the games. The faculty, staff and athletes of University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg Day School and Spartanburg Methodist College were actively involved.

The Celebrity Games participants were part of a fundraising effort on the Pledgeit fundraising platform. City Council representative Erica Brown led the players in the fundraising efforts.

With help from the Spartanburg County Foundation, 9 students from across Spartanburg County received training on how to evaluate grants. Representatives from the County Foundation its board, and the Spartanburg Day varsity basketball coach served on the youth-run planning committee.

Founded by rising sophomore Adom Appiah, Ball4Good is a nonprofit that supports communities through sports. The youth run organization is currently collaborating with soccer coach Nick Buxton to hold a soccer tournament in September to support the Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas.

Please note that several volunteers and grants committee members are missing from the pictures because of the summer schedule.

For a full list of 2019 partners and sponsors, please visit www.ball4good.org

Ball4Good is pleased to announce that it received a $2,500 grant from SunTrust Foundation. The grant will be used to support the Ball4Good Preparedness program. The purpose of the Preparedness program is to help youth excel in school, prepare for college and train for future jobs.

As part of the grant implementation process, Ball4Good will partner with Brothers Restoring Urban Hope and Citizen Scholars to equip 6-12 graders in the seven Spartanburg county school districts, and college students, in the areas of job preparedness, academics, physical health, emotional maturity, social competence and communication skills.

Kimberly Jolley, First Vice President at SunTrust and the SunTrust family have been supportive of Ball4Good since the organization’s inception. Representatives of SunTrust have participated in past Ball4Good activities.

About Ball4Good

The mission of Ball4Good is to support communities and nonprofits through sports. As part of the Ball4Good Preparedness program, the organization is happy to join community efforts to combat poverty in Spartanburg and beyond.

In 2017, the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Upstate were the first recipients of the first Ball4Good grant. On April 28th, 2019 the organization joined Ball4Good in raising funds for 4 local nonprofits. Two teams from the Cleveland and Pacolet Clubs played an exhibition game to kick off the third annual celebrity games. Thank you Boys and Girls Clubs!

SPARTANBURG – The third annual Ball4Good Celebrity Games will be held Sunday, April 28, 2019, from 3:00-5:00pm at Spartanburg Day School. This event will feature Spartanburg celebrities playing in action-packed basketball games to raise money for local nonprofits. Along with the Spartanburg celebrities, former Michigan State University player and the first athlete with autism to play Big 10 basketball, Anthony Ianni, will be on the roster.

“Having Anthony here in Spartanburg and playing in the Ball4Good Celebrity Games is an incredible opportunity for people to learn more about autism and the effects of bullying in school,” says Adom Appiah, founder of Ball4Good and ninth-grader at Spartanburg Day School.

Ianni’s involvement in the Celebrity Games is not by accident. The event’s proceeds will support Project HOPE Foundation, an organization that serves families and individuals with autism in Spartanburg County and across the Upstate. Ianni now travels the country speaking to student groups about bullying and overcoming autism.

“Anthony’s mission aligns perfectly with Project HOPE Foundation, and we are happy to support our local autism community through this organization,” Appiah continues.

Founded in 1997 by moms looking for services for their young sons with autism, Project HOPE Foundation offers programs that benefit not only the child affected with autism but also the entire family, all of whom are forever changed by this diagnosis. Project HOPE Foundation provides a lifespan of services for the autism community, through programs that Help families, Open minds, Promote inclusion and Expand potential. The organization provides individualized services to a broad range of people across ages, across the spectrum of autism, and across programs (ABA therapy, classroom options, adult employment, social groups, life skills, community outreach, and professional trainings).

“We are honored and grateful to be this year’s Ball4Good grant recipient,” said Lisa Lane, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Project HOPE Foundation. “This gift will help us grow Printed by HOPE, the t-shirt printing business we’ve started to help our young adults gain valuable job skills.”

Nine student representatives from across Spartanburg County coordinated the grants selection process. Several students and adult volunteers are part of the event planning team.

“It is so inspiring that Ball4Good has raised so much money and awareness by connecting people’s love for sports with the needs in our community. Being able to be a part of this process and choose a foundation in need of the grant has been truly amazing,” says Liza Webster, a middle school representative on the Ball4Good Grants Committee.

“Working with Ball4Good provided a great opportunity to learn about various organizations in our community that serve children and how philanthropy can help in those efforts,” says Maxwell Booker, a 9th grade student at Spartanburg High School and Ball4Good Grants Committee member.

Spartanburg High School 10th grader and Ball4Good committee member Will Beeson adds, “I’ve been lucky to be a part of Ball4Good and I am excited to see what good the organization will continue to do for our community.”

The Ball4Good Celebrity Games is a collaboration between Ball4Good, Southeastern Paper, The Spartanburg County Foundation, City of Spartanburg, Spartanburg schools, and several community leaders. Tickets to the Celebrity Basketball Games are $10 and can be purchased online at www.ball4good.org.

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Founded by Adom Appiah, Ball4Good is a 501(c)(3) organization supporting the community and other nonprofits through sports. Ball4Good began as a school project during the fall of 2016. Mrs. Kelsea Turner of Spartanburg Day School inspired her students to dedicate 20% of history period to a service project. Mrs. Turner called the project 20Time. Ball4Good is a result of Adom’s 7th grade 20Time project.

On April 22nd, 2018, the city of Spartanburg honored Zion Williamson with a proclamation at the 2nd Ball4Good Celebrity Basketball Games. The proclamation was read by Representative Max Hyde of the Hyde Law Firm. The city declared that from that day forth, April 22nd shall be known as Zion Williamson Day in Spartanburg! Join us in celebrating local hero Zion Williamson by posting your favorite Zion Williamson photo with the hashtag #ZionWilliamsonDay

Thank you to the students across Spartanburg County for participating in the voting process. Additional thanks to the 9 student representatives who coordinated the Grants Selection Process. These students are:

Adom Appiah – Spartanburg Day

Will Beeson – Spartanburg High

Rex Bingham – Dorman

Maxwell Booker – Spartanburg High

Christopher Henderson – Oakbrook

Charity Metcalf – JL Mann

Karine Nguyen – Spartanburg Day

Emily Campbell – Boiling Springs

Liza Webster – Spartanburg Day

Event tickets are scheduled to go on sale in March. The event will be held on April 28th, 2019. Stay tuned for additional updates.

The event is a collaboration between Ball4Good, Spartanburg County Foundation, City of Spartanburg, Spartanburg schools and several community leaders.

Ball4Good founder, Adom Appiah has been selected as South Carolina’s top High School Youth Volunteer in the 2019 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. He will receive $1,000 and be considered for one of ten national awards. Adom also qualified for the President’s Service Award which recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of time to serve their communities and their country. He was nominated by Spartanburg Day School. Congratulations Adom!

We had a great time volunteering at the MLK Day Basketball Leadership Camp hosted by Brothers Restoring Urban Hope Inc. (BRUH Mentor). Thanks to our donors, we were able to provide lunch for all the volunteers and participants. Also, in appreciation of their service to others, we provided the volunteers with Ball4Good merch. Kids received prizes too! MLK Day 2019 was a great experience! Thank you BRUH Mentor! Thank you donors!